Hi,
My first thought on looking over Koko’s intro was that she sounds a lot of fun, so hi Koko, and thanks for inviting me to blog on Pete and Sarah’s Guide to Seasonal Sex. Sarah and I are British writers and sometime editors, both with a strong focus on erotica, although Sarah’s speciality lies in magazine work and mine is in novels. I see your focus is on erotic romance, so I’m going to blog on happy endings, or the lack of them, and see if any of your readers would like to join in a discussion.
I write erotica, such as the short story A Winter Feast in this edition of Pete and Sarah’s, which is about a lesbian couple, a debauched dining society and a mean trick. It couldn’t really be classified as a romance, but it does involve a relationship, as any story that involves people having sex is sure to, at one level or another. This is even more true of novels, in which you have to follow the development of people’s emotions as the story develops, at least you have to if you’re going to get any real depth.
Looking back across my ninety odd novels, about half involve a couple coming together over a series of difficulties, which I suppose is the classic romance plot. Others are mysteries, thrillers, fantasies and studies in pure erotica, but all of them, just about, have a happy ending. This is a deliberate choice, for the simple reason that it’s what I prefer, and for that I make no excuse whatsoever. I like my heroines, and heroes, to achieve their heart’s desire, even if that isn’t necessarily marriage or a loving relationship. In Poppy’s Pin-Ups (my latest and written as Aishling Morgan) the hero ends up in a ménage à trois with the two rival heroines, Slave to the Machine ends with the heroine declining reincarnation, but both are very definitely happy endings.
I’m no fan of the sort of story in which the heroine starts as a feisty, independent woman but gradually learns to accept her true role as a sex slave, not only because it’s painfully corny, but because I actually prefer my heroines with some free will. Worse still is the ending typified by the Story of “O”, in which all the main characters die in some highly improbable accident. That’s not only lazy, but it sends the message that indulging in sexual pleasure is wrong and will end in disaster.
Then there’s the choice of leaving the ending on a cliff-hanger, a disaster, or completely open, and so allowing for the sequel. Personally, even though the majority of my books belong in series, I feel that’s a bit unfair on the reader and that each book released should work as a story in its own right. Lastly, there’s the device of having the villain win, although one thing that can distinguish erotica romance from hardcore erotica is that with the later it’s not always easy to tell the difference between hero and villain, if one exists at all!
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Pete and Sarah’s Guide To Seasonal Sex – your one stop shop for everything you want to know about seasonal adult activities. Packed with interviews from internationally renowned performers such as Dita Von Teese and Buck Angel, as well as winter themed erotic stories, and seasonal adult articles!
This is THE guide you need to read, whether you are a girl, a boy, or both! Written by former Forum magazine editor Sarah Berry, and world renowned erotic writer Peter Birch, with editing by erotic author Nicky Raven, this new quarterly seasonal adult guide is sure to enlighten, amaze and entertain you through the dark winter months.
Formatted and digitally published globally by erotica book imprint House Of Erotica.
Buy links:
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Peter Birch has been hopelessly addicted to sex his entire life but has made the best of what society at large sees as a problem. During the ‘eighties, while yuppies were sporting their filofaxes and falking into mobile phones the size of bricks, Peter and his girlfriend were experimenting with the joys of threesomes, dogging and spanking. In the caring ‘nineties he and his wife devoted their time to running sadomasochistic cabarets in London’s more specialised clubs. Finally realising that he needed to earn some money, he took to writing erotica, and has been at it ever since, becoming a prolific novelist, mainly under the Aishling Morgan name, writing guides to kinky sex and dabbling in journalism, which is where he met Sarah Berry.
11 comments
Hi JoJo,
Sadly, Deep Blue now only seems to be available as a coverless and wronl;y attributed ebook, but here’s the amazon link, and the cover blurb –
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Deep-Blue-Nexus-ebook/dp/B003JZCCKO/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1322724728&sr=1-5
Strange things are happening in the sleepy Devon spa town of Tawmouth, where women are having increasingly bizarre dreams. Are they the product of unfulfilled sexual yearnings, or do they herald the return of a fantastical prehistoric deity, as Nich Mordaunt, scholar of erotic pagan ritual, believes?Seaside smut meets the deeply perverse as peeping Toms, craven submissives and dastardly doms all face elemental forces far beyond their own imaginings. The perfect beach read!
I’m ashamed to say that I don’t have a site up at present. I should, and I need to sort out my backlist as well, but with it’s one of those things that keeps getting pushed to the back of the queue,
Peter
Killer octupus? Now did anything kinky happen with it? Also, can you post a blurb of the Deep Blue and a link to your website, please:)
Hi Sienna,
I don’t insist on it, by any means, but as a general rule I have the heroine come out on top.
If you include the death of the hero it’s inevitably going to make the ending highly poignant, which is fine if that sits with the mood of the book and what you want to achieve, but it does raise the question of how closely an author should stick to tried and tested formulae, such as the guaranteed HEA.
In the end I suppose it comes down to whether you’re aiming to place greater importance on self expression or sales, as the two are by no means always compatible. My best seller is actually something I wrote for an editor who is also a close friend when she was desperate to fill an unexpected gap in the schedule. It’s pure formula, HEA and all. On the other hand, my elaborate, anthromorphic fantasy, Tiger, Tiger, took far more time and effort, was infinitely more fun to write and has received much better reviews, yet sold barely a tenth as many copies.
So yes, if you feel that the hero needs to die, then he’d better do so, but be prepared to lose sales and revenue in consequence.
Then again, these things are never entirely predicatable!
Peter
I was wondering about your thoughts on HEA (happily ever after) in erotic/sensual romance. I’m heavily considering a tale where the hero dies. The romance is there and steamy, and the love is bittersweet. However, I’m told that erotic romance readers expect HEA and feel cheated if its not a guaranteed outcome. Are you an author who insists on happily ever after?
Hi JoJo,
Probably the ending of Deep Blue, which, in addition to the hero and heroine, involves a notably unpleasant villain and a pagan deity in the form of a giant octopus. That was immense fun to write.
Peter
What HEA did you have to most fun with?
Hi Chelsea,
You’re right, of course, and I’ve never really understood why when it’s such a popular fantasy. There are plenty of dominant women in my books, such as Strip Girl, in which the heroine is a comic strip artist who finds herself in her own created world and at the mercy of a very indignant and very dominant cartoon heroine, while Poppy from Poppy’s Pin-Ups and many others are more dominant than otherwise, but it’s not something I use as a central theme.
Peter
I see you write dom/submissive stories do you have any that feature the heroine as the dom? For some reason they are hard to find:(
Hi Koko, and thanks for having us!
Madeline, I have occasionally had comments from readers suggesting a story should have gone a different way, or even adding their own details, once in an eleven page letter! I don’t recall any comments on endings though, except one soft hearted old gentleman who said the conclusion to Princess (an Aishling Morgan fantasy adventure) made him cry.
Glad to have you here Pete and Sarah! Interesting topic:)
Personally it doesn’t matter to me if the H/H ride off in the sunset, but I would like to have some kind of closure. But I was wondering if you’ve ever received complaints from readers demanding the “typical” HEA.